On Wednesday, the Indian cricket team finally boarded a chartered plane that took them back to Delhi from Barbados’ Grantley Adams International Airport. The T20 World Cup winners had been stranded for three days after a category 4 hurricane hit the Caribbean island. ‘Coming home’.
The aircraft, coded AIC24WC (Air India Champions 24 World Cup), left at approximately 4:50 AM and is expected to arrive in India’s capital on Thursday by around 6:20 AM (IST).
An Instagram post was shared by Captain Rohit Sharma showing him holding the trophy inside the airplane with a caption “coming home”.
Initially, it was supposed to be only the playing team and their families but then BCCI included members of the support staff, some officials from BCCI as well as some supporters who travelled with them. South Africa lost by just seven runs to India in an epic final on Saturday night.
Calling in from New Jersey USA on July 2, it landed in Barbados at about 2 am local time. This airport reopened flights since Tuesday after being closed due to Hurricane Elsa. According to airport workers, looking out through their offices windows or standing at any point within the wide compound of Grantley Adams International Airport, none of them has ever seen a larger one coming down before today.
In the initial plan, Indian squad was set to depart on July 2 at 6 pm and reach India on Wednesday by 7:45 pm (IST). However, it could not go because there were delays in its arrival.
Accordingly, upon landing he will honor all players hours later on his return while they are also expected to stage an open- top bus parade around Mumbai city commemorating this victorious side that ended Netherland’s consecutive flow of titles since eleven years ago.
Meanwhile Hurricane Beryl is heading towards Jamaica right now.
